Biden delivers final foreign policy speech as talks to end Gaza bombing continue | Joe Biden News

Washington, DC – US President Joe Biden delivered a fiery speech defending his administration's foreign policy, just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Monday's speech, delivered at the State Department, served as a coda to Biden's four years in office. He was committed to reestablishing US leadership around the world, pursuing a foreign policy focused on human rights and alliances.

“We are in a place of change. The post-Cold War era is over. A new era has begun,” said Biden in his speech.

“In these four years, we have faced the challenges we have been tested on. We have passed those tests and we are stronger, in my opinion, than those tests.”

Critics, however, have given his administration bad marks in many areas, particularly in relation to US support for Israel's war in Gaza.

Still, the outgoing president wanted to drive home a clear message: that the US is stronger and its enemies weaker than before he entered the White House.

“There will be new challenges in the coming years and months, but regardless, it's clear my administration is leaving the next administration with a strong hand to play,” Biden said.

“We leave them with an America with more friends and stronger allies, its enemies weaker and under pressure – an America that once again leads, unites countries, sets the agenda, unites others behind our plans and ideas.”

Biden spoke seven days before Trump's January 20 inauguration.

The president-elect had criticized Biden's foreign policy on the campaign trail, accusing the Democrat of weakening the US's standing abroad while allowing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to continue.

Biden offered a different picture on Monday. He said his leadership strengthened the US's technological, economic and strategic position in the face of China, a competing global power.

The Democrat also praised his administration's role in rallying NATO support for Ukraine, which has faced a full-scale invasion from Russia since February 2022.

He also defended the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which fulfilled the agreement with the Taliban reached under Trump. The withdrawal ended two decades of US presence in the country.

“When I took over, I had a choice. Ultimately, I saw no reason to keep thousands of troops in Afghanistan,” Biden said.

“By ending the war, we have been able to focus our energy and resources on urgent challenges.”

He added that he was “the first president in decades not to leave the war in Afghanistan to his successor”.

'Positive spin'

Israel's war on Gaza probably loomed larger than Biden's speech. When he arrived, the president was met by protesters who shouted, “War criminal!”

Critics have alleged that Washington's continued military aid to Israel is tantamount to supporting foreign atrocities.

An estimated 46,584 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October 2023, with United Nations experts warning that Israel's actions in the Palestinian territories “amount to genocide”.

The US gave Israel a record nearly $17.9bn in military aid during the first year of the war and has so far refused to use continued funding to end the war.

Experts have speculated that Biden's “unwavering” support for Israel will be a permanent scar on his legacy.

However, in Monday's speech, the US president focused on the ceasefire agreement approved by the UN Security Council in June, and managed by his administration.

A final deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas remains elusive. Still, Biden talked about the latest political hope.

“We are on the verge of a proposal that I put forward months ago finally coming to fruition,” said Biden.

He added that he recently spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and will soon speak with another Egyptian mediator, Adel Fattah el-Sisi.

“I have learned [over] many years of public service never, never, never give up,” Biden said. “Many innocent people have been killed, many communities have been destroyed. The Palestinian people deserve peace.”

In response to the speech, Al Jazeera's political analyst Marwan Bishara said Biden is trying to “put a positive spin on a lot of things that are obviously incredibly negative”.

The latest round of talks comes “eight months late,” Bishara explained.

He described that period as “eight months of overturning the Netanyahu government and participating in this administration”.

'Diplomatic and geopolitical opportunities'

Overall, Biden's speech represents a fraught moment in American politics.

Entering the White House in 2021, Biden promised to be the counterpoint to Trump's mercurial and mercurial foreign policy platform.

In 2025, he urged the second Trump administration to avoid a return to the policies of the past.

He has proposed his own efforts to combat climate change, including rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, an international agreement to limit carbon emissions.

Trump had previously withdrawn from the agreement in 2020. As his second term approaches, his incoming administration is expected to do so again, as part of his broader promise to deregulate the US energy sector. Biden echoed those plans in Monday's speech.

“I know that some of the incoming administrations are skeptical about the need for clean energy. They don't even believe that climate change is a real thing,” he said.

“I think they are from a different century. They are wrong. They are dead wrong. It is the single biggest threat to humanity.”

Biden also sought to make another difference with Trump by praising America's alliances.

“Compared to four years ago, America is stronger. Our alliances are strong. Our enemies and competitors are weak. We didn't go to war to make these things happen,” said Biden.

“We have increased our capacity to engage with the world, creating more allies than the United States has ever had in our nation's history.”

His remarks served as the basis for Trump's recent comments. While Biden played up “a strengthened partnership across the Americas”, Trump promised to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico. He also called for control of the Panama Canal to be taken from Panama.

Biden also praised renewed alliances in the Indo-Pacific region, including regional partners such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. And Biden used his speech to emphasize the importance of the NATO alliance, even though Trump has repeatedly floated the possibility of withdrawing.

“The United States must take full advantage of the political and political opportunities that we have created,” Biden said.

He advised the US to “continue to unite countries to face the challenges posed by China, rest assured.” [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's war is ending and, finally, use the new moment for a stable, unified Middle East”.